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Now that vaccination against COVID-19 has begun in Latin America, there is growing concern about the inclusion of migrants and refugees. So are the vaccination plans of other countries. Experts explain why linking access to vaccines to legal migration makes no sense.
The number of migrants, refugees and displaced persons in the world who are left out of basic vaccination programs is disproportionate. In fact, according to humanitarian organizations, very few have access to primary basic care. The appearance of the pandemic not only exacerbated the problem, but also left this population more vulnerable because few countries include them in the immunization plan against the coronavirus.
See more: Here’s what you need to know to understand the world of vaccines
An error, according to Antonio Vitoro, director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) who, in mid-December when vaccination began in Europe, warned that “migrants and asylum seekers in the European Union must have the same access to vaccines than the rest of the citizens ”. For one basic reason: “No one will be safe until we are all safe.”
What does this mean? According to Johnattan García, public health expert at Dejusticia, “the vaccine would reduce mortality at the population level and the speed of transmission. If there is a sufficient percentage of people who have immunity through the vaccine, it will not be necessary to vaccinate 100 percent. But if we have areas where there is a lot of migration and they do not have access to immunization, it will be impossible to have that percentage of people immunized to lower the contagion. Not giving vaccines to the migrant population puts us all at risk. All citizens have the right to live ”.
That is why the statements of President Iván Duque, who assured that Venezuelan migrants who are not regularized in Colombia or do not have dual nationality will not be able to access vaccines, sparked the controversy. More and more experts insist on the reasons why the country should include this vulnerable population in the vaccination plan.
Lucía Ramírez, coordinator of the migration area at Dejusticia, says that the problem of tying access to the vaccine with a regular immigration status is structural since there are many difficulties in accessing that regularization. “The requirements are difficult to meet, for example asking them to have a passport to apply for the Colombian visa or the Special Permit of Permanence, most do not have this document; It is a vicious circle to link health access to immigration status, it is necessary for the State to provide routes according to the profile of the Venezuelan migrant population to access that regularization.
See more: Only 55% of Colombians would be interested in applying the vaccine against COVID-19
Ramírez recalls that Colombia signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a tool analyzed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which is in charge of establishing parameters and periodically monitoring compliance with obligations by states. “On November 27, the Committee issued a declaration on the universal and equitable right to the vaccine. A kind of guide to develop vaccination plans and pointed out that the right to health must be guaranteed to all people and this implies being part of the vaccination plans, at this time against COVID-19 ”, analyzes the expert from Of Justice.
In conclusion, he explains that this committee established that the vaccine cannot be discriminatory: “The criteria for deciding who is in a vaccination plan should not be nationality, but health. The government’s declaration ignores the public health implications and would be an unconstitutional measure; these statements should be rectified and when criteria for accessing the vaccine that are not political are established, such as immigration status ”.
He adds that “the migratory avalanche that the president says is not based on evidence, with measures or not, Venezuelans will continue to migrate, the fact that access to vaccines is prevented will not stop migration and will expose to host communities ”.
The Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz, responded to the criticisms that “the conclusion was reached that a structured plan must be made in which we would have complete traceability of the vaccine in people and we could study the adverse effects that are generated; for that it is essential that the population be identified, be it Colombian or non-Colombian population ”.
See more: This will be the vaccination scheme against the coronavirus in Colombia
Ruiz insisted that, regardless of nationality and age group, “the population has to be identified in what are called nominal bases and those who are not registered it is almost impossible to follow up” and insisted that with the migrant population that comes and goes there is no obligation to attend them.
“These people do not generate herd immunity since they return to their country, generating an effect of congestion in services, of no control of the vaccination scheme and no control,” he argued.
What plan do other countries have with migrants? The Director General of Health of the United States, Jerome Adams, said in an interview with CBS that it would be unethical to deny the vaccine to undocumented immigrants. He added that the information they reveal to medical centers to provide them with the second dose of the vaccine will not be used to legally affect them.
But in Latin American countries it is not clear. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Health is the only one that clearly identifies migrant populations, asking to identify migratory flows and implement a plan to immunize the migrant population at high-traffic borders. Chile, Peru and other countries that have received a high number of migrants do not specify access to the vaccine against COVID-19 for this group in their plans.
That is why in recent days, the International Organization for Migration asked countries for safe and legal routes for migrants, and that they be given health coverage against covid-19.
According to the WHO chief, the Covax mechanism signed agreements to access almost two billion doses of several promising candidate vaccines, and “laid the groundwork for new doses to be secured through donor contributions.”
This means that the 190 economies participating in the mechanism will be able to access doses to protect vulnerable groups in the first half of 2021. “And in that group are migrants.”
For decades, the International Organization for Migration has been a key player in global efforts to ensure that migrants and other people on the move have adequate access to vaccines in 80 countries. In 2019, more than 380,000 children under the age of five were vaccinated against polio and measles in emergency situations.
